Gitmo troops vandalise Wikipedia

US military personnel at Guantanamo Bay called Fidel Castro a
transsexual and defended the prison for terrorism suspects in
anonymous web postings, an internet group that publishes government
documents said today.

The group, Wikileaks, tracked web activity by service members
with Guantanamo email addresses and also found they deleted
prisoner identification numbers from three detainee profiles on
Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia that allows anyone to
change articles.

Julian Assange, who led the research effort, said the postings
amount to propaganda and deception.

"This is the American government speaking to the American people
and to the world through Wikipedia, not identifying itself and
often speaking about itself in the third person," Assange said in a
telephone interview from Paris.

Army Lt Col Ed Bush, a Guantanamo spokesman, said there is no
official attempt to alter information posted elsewhere but said the
military seeks to correct what it believes is incorrect or outdated
information about the prison.

Bush declined to answer questions about the Castro posting.

Assange said that in January 2006, someone at Guantanamo wrote
in a Wikipedia profile of the Cuban president: "Fidel Castro is an
admitted transexual," the unknown writer said, misspelling the word
transsexual.

The US has no formal relations with Cuba and has maintained its
base in the south-east of the island over the objections of the
Castro government.

Comments on news stories were posted by people using apparently
fictitious names to news sites - and were prepared by the
Guantanamo public affairs office, according to Wikileaks.

A comment on a Wired magazine story about a leaked Guantanamo
operations manual that was recently posted on the Wikileaks website
urged readers to learn about Guantanamo by going to the public
affairs website, adding that the base is "a very professional place
full of true American patriots".

Assange's group could not specifically identify who from
Guantanamo made about 60 edits to Wikipedia entries on topics that
included not only the prison but also subjects such as football,
cars and television programs.

The prison at Guantanamo hold about 305 men on suspicion of
links to terrorism, al-Qaeda or the Taliban.